NDS's Unified Headend Integrated with Pontis' Marketing Delivery Platform

Interactive TV and conditional access technology provider, NDS, announced Monday that it is integrating its NDS Unified Headend (note: the latter is billed as integrating conditional access, digital rights management and third-party applications, in order to enable operators to deliver secure broadcast and VOD services to a range of devices, including set-top boxes, mobile phones, PC's, portable media players and DVR's) with Pontis' Marketing Delivery Platform (note: the latter is billed as a comprehensive system for automating the creation and delivery of targeted offers and recommendations across TV, mobile and fixed-line platforms).

According to the companies, the integrated solution will allow digital pay-TV operators to up-sell and cross-sell services to their subscribers more effectively by giving them the ability to create real-time, personalized offers, promotions and content recommendations on both linear and VOD channels; by allowing operators to deliver relevant contextual offers and recommendations, it will improve the customer experience and raise ARPU, the companies claim. "Technology that helps to improve the customer experience can be a key differentiator for service providers as they strive to reduce churn and raise ARPU," NDS's chief marketing officer, Nigel Smith, said in a prepared statement. "By integrating Pontis' Marketing Delivery Platform with the NDS Unified Headend, we are providing pay-TV operators with an effective mechanism for developing personalized and contextual offers, promotions and content recommendations to subscribers on a multiplicity of networks and devices." Added Alon Werber, Pontis' VP of marketing and business development: "The integrated solution allows operators' marketing managers to cross-sell, promote and make recommendations that are relevant to customers and are based on real-time information. For example, households that frequently order children's films using VOD could be automatically offered an upgrade, perhaps with a special discount, to a premium kids' TV channel just before the start of the summer vacation period."

NDS and Pontis, which plan to jointly market their integrated solution to pay-TV operators, say that they will be showing "proof of concept" scenarios for the solution at the upcoming IBC show in Amsterdam.